Galapagos Islands Part 7 The Finale!

Internet!!  We have been about 3 weeks without any decent internet or no internet at all..  Another late blog post, but we'll get it done eventually! ;-)

Have you seen enough photos of iguanas and sea lions yet??  Finally time to wrap up the Galapagos.  Again I apologize for the overload of photos, but everyone and everything poses so well here we can't help ourselves with photo taking...

Watching a super size group of dolphins jumping in front of the bow with our guide.. there must have been a couple hundred of them.. incredible!

This morning we sailed to one last walk in the Galapagos National Park before turning the boat back to San Cristobal where Kevin and I started a few days ago.

After kicking each other for taking even more photos of iguanas when we promising a thousand times NOT TO!!  The boat sails back to port.. ;-(((

We said our good byes to the other passengers we spent the last few days with and headed straight back to the lovely little Nelly's Hostel that we first stayed at on arrival.  Lucky for us she gave us the "penthouse" room on the roof, with lovely sunset views and a hammock.

Kevin has been itching to scuba dive since we got here and we learned from our Naturalist guide that one of the favorite dive spots is called Kicker's Rock.  They pretty well promise that you can swim with the sharks here and that would be the only wild experience we haven't crossed off our Galapagos list yet!

So we plan to meet young Chase from Wisconsin who was on our boat and traveling solo from Wisconsin.  We went for dinner and to book a scuba dive in the morning. There was a bit of lighting on our walk into town, and before we knew it, this massive downpour!!  And I mean massive!  We ran into the restaurant, and had a seat in 6 inches of water.. but good choice.. best pizza we've had in ages!

The rain stopped soon enough and after dinner, it was a dry walk home.

Met with Charles Darwin along the way with a few choice comments to him about our wild experiences here..

The next morning, some of us are more enthusiastic than others to head out to that big rock, Kicker.

I can't.. get.. my mask on!!

This was THE MOST incredible snorkeling experience of my life!!  The wall of Kicker Rock is full of color and life.  Purples, yellow, green, blue and orange things attached to the wall in what could be the most perfect art work I've ever seen!

But forget the plants, it didn't take but a few moments for dag gone sharks to show up!!!!  I knew they were a possibility, but I didn't realize so many!  As soon as they got close to my fins, I had it in my head they were chasing my fins and going to bike my feet off, so I screamed so loud in my snorkel and swam away so quick!  But the sharks stuck with us and I quickly learned they have no intentions of biting us. These particular sharks are the smaller "Galapagos Sharks", but still scary enough.

Next, our guide started slapping the water with one of his fins, which both White Tip and Black Tip sharks responded.. They got so close to us too!  I was nervous because they are quite a bit larger than the Galalpagos, they look meaner.. ;-/ But again, it was easy to tell they are just curious and not in the mood to eat a very white Aussie/American.

All the while we "the snorkelers" could see those, "the divers" a few meters below us.  The water is SO clear.  A few sea turtles swim gracefully past, this is truly a beautiful experience.

Down by the divers we see the Hammerhead sharks.  The biggest ones of all.  I'm glad they stayed down there!

Our one and only underwater photo is from the dive company themselves and we were able to purchase the photo from them later.  Kevin was so proud of this shot!!

Our guide was always calling the sharks around to swim with us, and lots and lots of colorful fish.  Normally I would say that I didn't like having sharks anywhere near me, but I came to enjoy and appreciate swimming with them, 4 different kinds! (Galapagos, White Tip, Black Tip and Hammerhead.. all in one swim!) Now I can proudly say that a whole lot of fear is gone. Smart decision to stay an extra day after our boat tour to do this.

Good bye Kicker Rock.. and Thank YOU!!

Back to San Cristobal Island for one last night in the penthouse suite.

Loved watching these kids play with the sea lion on the beach here, and thought what a lucky life they have..

We all feel a bit worn out from the last few days..

Time to officially have all blue boobies wave goodbye to the wonderful Galapagos Islands.

Now that is talent! ;-)))

Flight back to Quito Ecuador was a bit sad.  We both talked a lot about the trip and agreeing that it was the best spur of the moment decision we've ever made. If you remember, we had a couple days in Quito and literally had our motorcycles packed up ready to leave when I mentioned that I feel bad not seeing the Galapagos while so close to them.  Kevin has traveled a lot in his life and so have I. Not many places on the planet can top the Galapagos Islands and we nearly passed it up.

Slight culture shock being back in the big city..

Need I say more??? ;-)

We wandered back to the roof top restaurant that we discovered in Quito a few posts back.  No driving old elevators this time, but we did have the most romantic dinner including harp music!

This restaurant had wi-fi and we got a message from James that he and Mark are in town now too.  So we invited them up!  They had their own romantic dinner.. ha!  and we hung around with them for a few more drinks.

Tomorrow we are back on the road anticipating the thousands of kilometers I need to cover in a short amount of time to meet the adventure team in Chile.  Ciao!

Galapagos Islands - Part 6

Welcome to Galapagos sea urchin surgery!

Remember a couple days back while snorkeling, Kevin backed in to some sea urchins underwater and got lots of little purple tattoos on his lower back. He hasn't been much bothered by them, until now.  I talked to the ship host who knows this problem well and said that it is VERY important that we get the little urchin tips out so they don't cause infection.

He gave me instructions that included hot candle wax and a sterilized pin tip.  We borrowed the candle from the dining room, I had a pin and off I went for pretend urchin surgery.

I'm quite enjoying pouring hot wax on Kevin! He didn't scream... much! ;-)  Seriously, the job was to pour a drop of wax over the wound (of which there are 17 in total) and the heat will pull the little urchin tip to the surface if not completely out into the wax.

 
I don't see them easily.  With the purple dots on Kevin's skin I expected to see black or purple urchin tips but they were actually more clear/white.  So I called in the host to make sure I was doing it right and he laughed and said yes, and then took over the job.. thank goodness!

I used Kevin's little camping lantern to give the doctor more light AND I kept the the hot wax pouring job for fun.. ha! Our host made sure each and every one of the 17 tips was free.

Besides the fact he thought I got a bit carried away with the wax, Kevin was a much happier man when we finished.

The next morning is another location and another day to explore a bit more of the Galapagos before we start heading back to the port.

It's a rain day!!



What's on the menu for Galapagos today?

I first spotted these 2 birds watching out to sea and chatting away, and I imagine them saying:  "Can you believe this weather, Marge.." Not really...

"Hmmm. I think I'll hold off fishing for a bit.  Hey Marge.. Iguana hear a joke?'  "Sure!!"

At a fancy Halloween dress ball, a couple arrived with the woman on the man's back.

"What have you come as?" asked the hostess.

"I'm a tortoise," said the man.

"A tortoise?" she asked.

"Yes. My name is Tom, and this is Michelle."

Hahahaha.... !!

"Hey Bertie.. I've got one..  

Why did the tortoise cross the road? Don't know, why?

To get to the Shell station!"

Ha! Cawcawcaw... That's pretty bad, Bertie... ;-)

One thing I did not expect to see in the Galapagos Islands is graffiti.. ;-((

These guys are not too happy about it either.. damn foreigners!!

We did another hike to the high view point and the weather is clearing a bit along the way.

Lava cactus on the way down and a wiggle through the iguanas to get catch the dingy back to the boat.

Hola!! Welcome home!!

After lunch, Kevin and I decided to head out in the kayak.

We joined some of the others who had found a school (?) of sea lions to swim with.. how fun!

Kevin's looking down at the sea lions.  I'm looking at how close he is to the wall.. and penguins!

I like this photo of Kevin.  There is actually a sea lion here, you just can't see it very well.  What I like about it is his magic aura!!

And some sea turtles slowly and majestically swim by...

Who are you??  When in Rome...  He's doing as the sea lions do... ;-)))

The most beautiful starfish I've ever seen.  I loved the chocolate chip one from a couple posts back, but this one is amazing too.

 Loving these guys..


We ended up taking more video from here than still photos of us playing and twirling around with the sea lions for a super long time.  The video didn't come out very clear, and where I am the internet is far too slow to upload, but it was SO much fun!

 This is called "Darwin's Toilet".  Can you guess why in the next 3 photos?

I'm enjoying today.  Not so much about education, just to go slowly and hang with the locals. 

There is so much to wonder about, in this wonderful lazy world....

 Aussie-American girl and Czech girl discussing how much we love Ecuador!

Is this the cutest baby you've ever seen??

We have been joking around all day, but about now Kevin and I got in a fight.. proper trying to trip each other and wrestling in the sand. And before I knew it, he picked me up and threw me over his shoulder and I landed on my back in the sand, like the wrestlers do! I was screaming but also amazed, because I am not a little person!!  The guests on the beach didn't know what to make of it until I was laughing and then he was tickling and poking me in my side trying to make up for it.  That sucker is always full of surprises!

That's a frigate awesome photo Kevin!  Bird taking off from the radar of the boat, another good one by Kev.

Loving today's towel formation.  Shower done and on to the back deck because it's beer-0-clock!

Still in a goofball mood...crazy man. Payback is coming.  Remember to expect it when you least expect it, Buster Brown... Hasta Manana!